DON’T START CELEBRATING

07.03.17

Senate Bill 719, Brian Boquist’s gun confiscation bill, has been passed out of the House Rules Committee with NO public hearing and virtually NO notice. We expect this bill to be on the House floor on Wedesday.

This mean spirited and vindictive bill is designed to punish gun owners, pit family members against each other and promote conflict and hatred. All in the name of “compassion” of course.

If passed, this bill will allow a “family member,” who may not have seen you in decades, to demand that your rights and your property be confiscated by the police. This “family member” need have no credentials in mental health. The Judge who imposes this order against you will be, at best, trained in law, NOT mental health. Remember, there are “judges” in Oregon who believe even cop’s guns should be “put on a barge and dropped in the ocean.”

The bill also allows any police officer to ask the court to take your rights and property.

Under SB 719, you won’t even know there is a court order against you until the police arrive to confiscate your firearms. But it gets even worse.

Not only will they confiscate YOUR firearms, they will have to confiscate the firearms of every member of your household. Think that’s crazy? They will also have to confiscate every single knife in your house.

What do you have to do to be subject to one of these confiscation orders?

Well, you and your whole household can lose the right to own kitchen knives because in the last 180 days you bought or attempted to buy a firearm or “deadly weapon.”

You DON’T have to have committed a crime. You DON’T have to be suicidal. You DON’T have to have hurt anyone.

There is not one single word in the bill that seeks to get help for people who actually are in a mental health crisis. In fact, the Democrats on the committee refused to even discuss an amendment that would have addressed that.

Make no mistake, this bill is an expression of pure hatred for gun owners. The fact that one of its sponsors, Senator Brian Boquist, is a Republican who has always courted gun owner’s votes makes it all the more appalling. Under this bill you can lose your gun rights if you have ever had a DUI. (Of course, you don’t lose your car.)

If you contest the court’s order, they may NOT consider any “mental health diagnosis.” So if a mental health professional has concluded you are not mentally ill, the court may not consider that! The bill is the personification of insanity.

The proponents of this bill have blatantly lied about its purpose and its ramifications.

We hate to interrupt the Independence Day celebration, but if we don’t stop this awful bill, we will have taken another step down the road to serfdom.

Even if you have taken action before we need you to double down on your efforts to let the House members know how outrageous, counterproductive, and dangerous this bill is.

Please use this link to take action and reach all members of the Oregon House.